Rabat – Morocco’s universities have spent recent years expanding their research output and raising their international profile, but a new global index suggests the country’s institutions continue to face challenges when it comes to research integrity indicators.
The 2025 Research Integrity Risk Index, developed by the American University of Beirut, places all 12 Moroccan universities included in its database outside the two lowest risk categories. Instead, they fall across the Watch List, High Risk, and Red Flag groups.
Unlike global university rankings that assess academic reputation, teaching, research output, or international outlook, the Research Integrity Risk Index focuses solely on indicators associated with research integrity risk.
Its 2025 three-component edition measures publication rates in journals later delisted from major databases, retraction rates, and citations to retracted papers. The authors say the index is designed to identify publication patterns that may require closer attention rather than measure the overall quality of a university.
Four Moroccan universities were classified as Red Flag. Chouaib Doukkali University recorded the country’s highest RI² score at 0.638, followed by Mohamed I University at 0.632, Mohammed V University in Rabat at 0.614, and Ibn Tofail University at 0.567.
The University of Hassan II Casablanca, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, University Sultan Moulay Slimane, and Ibn Zohr University were placed in the High Risk category.
University of Moulay Ismail, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Cadi Ayyad University, and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University were listed on the Watch List, with UM6P recording Morocco’s lowest RI² score at 0.331.
No Moroccan university appeared in either the Low Risk or Normal Variation categories.
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The findings offer a different picture from conventional global rankings, where several Moroccan institutions regularly appear. The RI² methodology does not assess research volume or academic reputation. Instead, it examines publication practices linked to research integrity risk, meaning institutions cannot directly compare their position in the index with their standing in rankings such as QS or Times Higher Education.
Across the global dataset, China recorded the largest number of universities in the Low Risk and Normal Variation categories with 294 institutions, followed by the United States with 216 and the United Kingdom with 74.
India had the highest number of Red Flag universities with 37, ahead of Saudi Arabia with 18, Iraq with 14, Egypt with 13, Indonesia with 10, and Malaysia with eight. Morocco recorded four universities in the Red Flag category.
According to the index’s authors, the framework is intended to complement existing university rankings by examining research integrity risks through publication-based indicators rather than serving as a measure of educational quality or institutional prestige.
